Backpressure on the Backbone: A Lightweight, Non-intrusive Traffic Engineering Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, non-intrusive traffic engineering scheme for autonomous system networks that uses backpressure principles and SDN to improve throughput with minimal central control and compatibility with existing routing.

Contribution

It presents a novel collaborative traffic engineering approach combining backpressure routing with SDN, requiring minimal control interaction and respecting existing network structures.

Findings

Substantial increase in transit traffic volume in simulations

The scheme is mathematically proven to stabilize networks

Compatible with existing distance vector routing

Abstract

The present study proposes a novel collaborative traffic engineering scheme for networks of autonomous systems. Backpressure routing principles are used for deriving priority routing rules that optimally stabilize a network, while maximizing its throughput under latency considerations. The routing rules are deployed to the network following simple SDN principles. The proposed scheme requires minimal, infrequent interaction with a central controller, limiting its imposed workload. Furthermore, it respects the internal structure of the autonomous systems and their existing peering relations. In addition, it co-exists smoothly with underlying distance vector-based routing schemes. The proposed scheme combines simplicity with substantial gains in served transit traffic volume, as shown by simulations in realistic setups and proven via mathematical analysis.